the last book I ever read (Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, excerpt ten)

Interestingly, other high-level parties also began mobilizing to gather information that might help to make these charges stick. According to a December 20, 1972, memo that the Buffalo office of the FBI received from W. Mark Felt, the acting director of the FBI in D.C. (and later admitted Watergate whistle-blower Deep Throat), had just received a request “for the criminal background of the individuals indicted whose names have been publicly disclosed.” No one was to know that the FBI was involved in any way in these cases; Felt stressed discretion, and “cautioned” the Buffalo office “that this matter must be obtained in a most circumspect manner.” Pressed to reveal who had made this request, Felt disclosed that is was the vice president, Spiro Agnew, who was “interested in what type of individuals, as to criminal history, were involved.”